peaceandjoy

I took an artisanal bread class at Wide Awake Bakery last Saturday! It was a long, exhausting day - the class was from 8 - 6, but it's over an hour drive for me. So I had to leave home before 7; of course I think I was worrying about not waking up (retired and rarely have to use an alarm any more), so slept fitfully.

It was really interesting and I learned a lot. Bakeries don't make breads using the rise/punch/knead method. They make a pouliche, pre-ferment, starting at least the day before the actual baking. The preferment is made with their starter, which they keep for years. Instead of kneading, there is a folding method, done 3 or 4 times at intervals of about 45 minutes.

The lame (cutter for top of loaf) is just a straight razor on a handle. You could buy a pack of the blades and use one without the handle. Obviously, just be super careful. The other way we cut the tops was to use scissors! You must have those around, lol.

Home ovens need to be heated to about 500° for at least an hour before beginning the baking. You need either a closed pan that can withstand such high heat (like a dutch oven or cast iron) or a stone that can be put in to preheat while the oven is heating. We made both warm dough (ie, what we had mixed from the pouliche that morning and folded over the course of a few hours) and cold dough (that they had prepared the night before and put in a 45° room. Refrigerator temps are basically too cold. The cold dough was much easier to work with and made a better loaf, as far as rising, holding its shape, and final texture.

There are scads of instagram links and Pinterest as well. We were not given specific recipes... I get it, they are their secret recipes. Rather, we got methods for figuring what we needed, including starting with a number, deducting ambient temp, temp of flour, etc. Did I mention it was really interesting?

Now I have starter ("Chef" in bakery terms). It's 30 years old. There are sites devoted to tracking the microbes in given starters, where they came from and where they have traveled over decades. Like having your own DNA tested, you can have starter tested. And there are sourdough hotels, for when you are not going to be home to care for your Chef. A whole new world.